Days have passed but the nip of Diwali is still there, we are still surrounded by boxes of sweets, which now nobody wants to see forget about eating, packed and opened boxes of gifts were lying here and there, waiting to find a perfect place in almirahs, lights are still adorning outside of our houses, ribbons and glittering wall hangings are still shining brightly.
After sending my husband and son to their work I decided to clear all that stuff in a very peaceful environment. I distributed the sweets to my household helpers and arranged my precious gifts in a well deserved place and put some uninteresting gifts in my store room, packed the lights so that they can be reused next year, ribbons department is perfectly handled by my son, by torning each and every piece.
As compared to my mom and my sister-in-law, my life is much, much easier because there, in Diwali days, my father brings lots of gifts, sweets and decorative materials home, to distribute them to relatives, friends and clients. My husband try to keep things simple, keeping in mind the unmanageable Diwali traffic, we exchange gifts with just some very few friends and relatives.
After days of feasting, we all required something healthy. What about a dish which is full of vitamins, minerals and iron? Today I am sharing a recipe of my mom-in-law called Pachranga and when I say this, I feel so proud. It is a family favorite and mine too and believe me whenever I put a spoonful of this into my mouth I bless her for creating this.
Till last to last year she used to make this for us but now as she could not stand for long in the kitchen I decided to make this exactly the way she described to me and the result was according to her is as perfect as hers.
Washing the mud coated spinach and cutting so many vegetable is a tedious task for me. I remember, how she used to all this single handedly with so much love and comfort and that too when the ingredients were four times more. Yesterday when I inquired her the recipe, she got so excited and said keep the gas near my bed I will make this for you.
Adapting this recipe was easy but no matter how hard I try, I can never inherit the passion she has, for cooking and serving his large extended family. Even today, when his sons and their family visits her, this is one such recipe which they always wanted to eat.
Ingredients
- Spinach – two full bunch, stems removes, washed and chopped finely
- Cauliflower – 1 big, chopped
- Brinjals, long one – 4, chopped
- Ridge Guord – 4, peeled and chopped
- Tomatoes – 4 to 5 big one, chopped finely
- Ginger a piece, grated
- Potato- 2 smal
- Radish – 2, chopped finely only the white part
- Asafoetida – 1 tsp
- Salt according to taste
- Red chili powder – 1 tbsp
- Green chilies – 4 to 5, chopped
- Coriander powder – 3 tbsp
- Dry mango powder or Amchoor powder – 1 tbsp
- Carom seeds or ajwain – 1 tbsp
- Ghee or clarified butter – 2 tbsp
Method
In a pressure cooker put some ghee and when ghee become hot add ajwain and asafoetida and when it starts to splutter add chopped vegetable and spices, stir well. Give 3 whistles 2 to 3 and let it cook in the steam once the gas is off. Once done have this with rice or chapatti.*
*She used to cook this on slow flame in a big kadai for 2 hours. I adapted the easy method and took just 5 minutes in cooking.
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